MMORPG Update: Dawn of the Aspects

The first part of the Dawn of the Aspects ebook series written by Richard A. Knaak is now available for download from Amazon or through iTunes. This will be the first of five installments and the series focuses on the former Dragon Aspects losing their immortal powers after defeating Deathwing, and before they first became Aspects in the time of the proto-dragons. I think I know what I’ll be doing this afternoon! The first part is only $3.20/€3,07/£1.99.

THE AGE OF DRAGONS IS OVER.

“Uncertainty plagues Azeroth’s ancient guardians as they struggle to find a new purpose. This dilemma has hit Kalecgos, youngest of the former Dragon Aspects, especially hard. Having lost his great powers, how can he—or any of his kind—still make a difference in the world?

The answer lies in the distant past, when savage beasts called proto-dragons ruled the skies. Through a mysterious artifact found near the heart of Northrend, Kalecgos witnesses this violent era and the shocking history of the original Aspects: Alexstrasza, Ysera, Malygos, Neltharion, and Nozdormu.

In their most primitive forms, the future protectors of Azeroth must stand united against Galakrond, a bloodthirsty creature that threatens the existence of their race. But did these mere proto-dragons face such a horrific adversary alone, or did an outside force help them? Were they given the strength they would become legendary for… or did they earn it with blood? Kalecgos’s discoveries will change everything he knows about the events that led to the… DAWN OF THE ASPECTS.” (battle.net website)

So, what’s part 1 about?

The former Dragon Aspects are on the brink of going their separate ways when Kalecgos discovers a mysterious artifact that allows him to see through the eyes of his late predecessor, Malygos, and Kalecgos is transported to a time where the Aspects were no more than primitive proto-dragons. Across Kalimdor’s northern plains, they fought for survival against each other and the terrifying and dominant Father of Dragons, Galakrond. Where did this strange artifact come from? Are the visions a gift or a curse?

When will you be able to get the next installments?

Part 1: 19 February 2013
Part 2: 18 March 2013
Part 3: 22 April 2013
Part 4: 20 May 2013
Part 5: 17 June 2013

Go download and read, NOW!

October 22, 2011

Homefront

Homefront is a THQ brainchild that utilizes the Unreal Engine and shows what beautiful art and performance on lower end machines can do. I fell in love with this game being my first play-through I took my time and listened to everything I could, read every article I could find and all. The campaign for Homefront is by far one of the truly epic. Although excruciatingly short it is absolutely mind blowing. The video in this article is the opening cut scene for the game, watch it to get an idea of where you are starting your mission.

This game is brutal. If you get sick easily, don’t play this as some of it is a bit grotesque for patriots or vets. Though the story makes for a good game it is a bit hard to not imagine it as possible. The game also displays ad space purchasing from TigerDirect.com in a long chapter where you are running through their main facility all you see is the name all over the place.

Graphics – 9

The Unreal Engine has granted THQ the ability to run super high end textures and graphics without the need for huge caches of video memory and thus has let me play at max settings on my system at minimum 20FPS (System specs at the bottom). I, being an Unreal Editor user and map creator myself know from experience how wonderfully you can texture to make the appearance of three dimensional object without the need for fully three dimensional polygons, and this is what help with the ample beauty even on low end machines. THQ could not have done better combining the Unreal Engine with Havoks’ physics engine has given them the ability to out perform and enhance others with a smaller budget in place for the titles.

Playability – 9/4

I gave two ratings for this for one reason, the difference in campaign to multiplayer. The campaign if you couldn’t tell by now has had me enamored. The multiplayer, however, is lacking anything different from the past few CoD releases. To call the multiplayer a MW2 clone would not be a far pull. It is run almost to the T exactly the same with the amount of guns/items even less then half that of CoD. I cannot accept a new release that is a carbon copy on a more popular game without some sort of compensation. The fact that even had a multiplayer at all seemed to be more or less an afterthought. It is so weak in comparison to what was expected after playing through the campaign that I could not even get past level 5. This in turn is why I believe the community has fled. They would have done much better to copy a better platform for multiplayer, say…. Battlefield for example. Either way, the playability in the campaign is awesome. Even on the normal difficulty I died about 50 times before finishing it. The game is not hard to the point that you want to quit but it is also that which makes it a bit odd. I would die only to see the AI to follow the exact same pathing and I could play a scene 10 times and finally find where to hide, how to shoot without ever getting shot. Trial and Error.

Audio – 7

The game is all voice acted and done well with the mouth working in unison with words. It is about as good as expected, though some of the gun sounds are a bit filtered or saturated. They seem to vary gun to gun and have an off queue sound to firing if only by the smallest fraction of a second though that may be my lack of a proper sound card.

All in all the game is a great success and for the price that you would pay at our friends, IntKeys, you can’t pass up this title. Get a bonus 5% off their already low prices by using the TGB discount code: 224c76cae8

I would recommend it to any FPS fan for nothing more than the storyline. Otherwise, wait for MW3 as the multiplayer is a match to it with a ruined community.

October 22, 2011

Homefront

Homefront is a THQ brainchild that utilizes the Unreal Engine and shows what beautiful art and performance on lower end machines can do. I fell in love with this game being my first play-through I took my time and listened to everything I could, read every article I could find and all. The campaign for Homefront is by far one of the truly epic. Although excruciatingly short it is absolutely mind blowing. The video in this article is the opening cut scene for the game, watch it to get an idea of where you are starting your mission.

This game is brutal. If you get sick easily, don’t play this as some of it is a bit grotesque for patriots or vets. Though the story makes for a good game it is a bit hard to not imagine it as possible. The game also displays ad space purchasing from TigerDirect.com in a long chapter where you are running through their main facility all you see is the name all over the place.

Graphics – 9

The Unreal Engine has granted THQ the ability to run super high end textures and graphics without the need for huge caches of video memory and thus has let me play at max settings on my system at minimum 20FPS (System specs at the bottom). I, being an Unreal Editor user and map creator myself know from experience how wonderfully you can texture to make the appearance of three dimensional object without the need for fully three dimensional polygons, and this is what help with the ample beauty even on low end machines. THQ could not have done better combining the Unreal Engine with Havoks’ physics engine has given them the ability to out perform and enhance others with a smaller budget in place for the titles.

Playability – 9/4

I gave two ratings for this for one reason, the difference in campaign to multiplayer. The campaign if you couldn’t tell by now has had me enamored. The multiplayer, however, is lacking anything different from the past few CoD releases. To call the multiplayer a MW2 clone would not be a far pull. It is run almost to the T exactly the same with the amount of guns/items even less then half that of CoD. I cannot accept a new release that is a carbon copy on a more popular game without some sort of compensation. The fact that even had a multiplayer at all seemed to be more or less an afterthought. It is so weak in comparison to what was expected after playing through the campaign that I could not even get past level 5. This in turn is why I believe the community has fled. They would have done much better to copy a better platform for multiplayer, say…. Battlefield for example. Either way, the playability in the campaign is awesome. Even on the normal difficulty I died about 50 times before finishing it. The game is not hard to the point that you want to quit but it is also that which makes it a bit odd. I would die only to see the AI to follow the exact same pathing and I could play a scene 10 times and finally find where to hide, how to shoot without ever getting shot. Trial and Error.

Audio – 7

The game is all voice acted and done well with the mouth working in unison with words. It is about as good as expected, though some of the gun sounds are a bit filtered or saturated. They seem to vary gun to gun and have an off queue sound to firing if only by the smallest fraction of a second though that may be my lack of a proper sound card.

All in all the game is a great success and for the price that you would pay at our friends, IntKeys, you can’t pass up this title. Get a bonus 5% off their already low prices by using the TGB discount code: 224c76cae8

I would recommend it to any FPS fan for nothing more than the storyline. Otherwise, wait for MW3 as the multiplayer is a match to it with a ruined community.

June 27, 2011

Sound The Alarm

Hey guys I have a friend who also has a nerd site. His name is Adam and he does up the geekness over at http://stashow.net/. Sound The Alarm brings you news in gaming and other fun things as well. They also do weekly podcasts chatting about anything going on in gaming, sports, or random stuff around the house. They just hit the 25th episode mark so gratz to them. So give them a checking out and tell them AceOfNades sent ya. Oh and be nice.